I'm amazed that Quezon City is actually bigger in population than Manila though mainly because Manila gets larger attention and people outside the Philippines are unaware of this.

That's not particularly different from San Jose being larger than SF. Same deal though: Manila's geographic borders are much smaller than that of QC. (Quezon City also was the capital of the country during the middle of the century)

Makati is the one city in Metro Manila that really has a distinctive skyline, followed by the Bonifacio section of Taguig adjacent to it.

Well there's been talks to decentralize Manila and spread economic growth and wealth to other parts of the Philippines most notably Pampanga, Cavite, Batangas and yes Davao where the current president is from. Note I'm not sure how much of an impact yet the Manila Skyway Gap is going to spread the economic wealth to other parts of the Philippines yet though. But the talk of the Philippines being too dependent on Manila economically and government policy has been at play for some time though. This has to be the equivalent to America only depending on Washington D.C. for wealth and representation instead of spreading economic growth to all 50 states though given how the article is discussed.

Just discovered this year there is now a third proposed north-south Manila expressway, the NLEX-Cavitex Port Expressway Link (a tunnel proposal! along scenic Roxas Boulevard corridor and down R10 in Tondo) -

Crazy to think that by 2022, the north-south traffic currently being forced to use mostly at-grade EDSA to get between southern Metro Manila and NLEX could now have multiple options to head out of town.

For context, here is a map of the route (relative to the parallel Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project that will likely be finished first) - it will connect the under-construction NLEX Harbor Link to the Skyway in the Santa Mesa area, following an approximate corridor of Panay street, Blumenetritt Road, and Rizal Avenue/R-9.